Ava Gardner, la vie est plus belle que le cinéma

A barefoot contessa, a restive Pandora, a screwed-up princess, an exquisite drunk, a bawdy aristocrat, a nightmare for the puritanical America and the moguls of Metro-Goldwin-Mayer, Ava Gardner never stopped loving those she loved. She turned women green and made men sweat. And rejected with all her force the bulwark of normality. Dependent, stubborn, temperamental, irascible and lazy, Hollywood understood the woman perfectly and saddled her with nickname like "The World's Most Beautiful Animal" or the "Hollywood Panther". She had the nobility, beauty, freedom and nonchalance of a cat. A nocturnal creature, Ava always preferred smoking and drinking to the wee hours of the morning and sleeping with whomever she wanted rather than working on a movie set. (Illégitime Défense)